This is such a great idea. Instead of having a gas powered vehicle that can make use of an electric motor, make an electric vehicle that has a gas powered generator. Fantastic! Even better than just a gas powered generator – make it so it can burn other types of fuels as well.

I’d got for the Chevy Volt now. Even with the concerns over the current battery technology not being sufficient it would still make for a great vehicle. Just imagine all of those people who have short commutes – they could drive without ever burning gasoline. The suggested 40 miles would be fantastic as then my commute gasoline cost would be cut in half, if not more!

One question that came up was how much it would cost in electricity to charge it over night. Yeah, it would cost you some money but since the electrical grid typically has extra power available over night, it might not cost as much as you think. For example, Ontario is in the process of going to “Smart Metering” which means they will charge different rates based on time of day. Overnight and weekends will be the cheapest. So with an electric car, you just plug it in overnight and hook a timer to it so it only turns on during “cheap” times.

This morning I had a little bit of excitement as I was heading to work. As I was pulling up to the stop sign down the road, I realized that the engine was still reving quite high. I thought that maybe the car was just a little cold and the idle was high. As I let off of the brake, the car lurched forward and then I realized something wasn’t quite right. After I got to a safer spot to stop (had my foot on the brake pretty hard the whole time so it wouldn’t take off on me too badly), I slid the transmission into neutral, pulled of the road and shut off the engine. Good thing the car is new enough to have a rev limiter!

So now I’ve got a car that has the throttle stuck wide open and I need to get it to a garage. I can’t drive it because as soon as I start it (I tried) the engine revs up into red-line zone and there’s no way I’m going to try getting it into gear to drive it. I ended up getting the car towed to the Chevy dealership a couple blocks over and left it there for them to look at. Luckily the car is still (barely) under warranty so the GM Roadside Assistance paid to have it towed over to the garage. :) That was the best part of my morning.

Anyhoo, I got a call from the service woman and she told me what was wrong:

Yeah, so there was a tree nut stuck under the throttle which was keeping it wide open.

What kind of nut?

A tree nut.

As I was about to ask her where on the engine it fell off of, my brain stopped thinking about a nut made out of metal and realized she meant a nut from a tree. A DAMN WALNUT!